Yesterday I met with Congressman John Delaney from Maryland's sixth district, where many of our stores are located.
Rep. Delaney was kind enough to visit to learn more about our business and the challenges we face each day in provdiding the best possible experience to our customers, and the challenges are many.
I am so grateful to all my associates for always putting customers first and creating processes that center around creating the best possible experience. I'm so proud that our people have maintained our ISO certification for ten years and counting.
There were really two messages that I wanted to make sure we shared with Congressman Delaney. One, the need to do more for medium size businesses like ours that provide so many jobs when it comes to the estate tax, and two, the need to do more to make the transaction on consumers easier.
Whe we both looked at the long Maryland law contract that customers sign to finance a car we both agreed there was too much information and probably few people read the entire document. In the government's effort to protect consumers, which I firmly believe in, we've created a burden in disclosures and complicated language.
In our discsussion about the estate tax I shared how we are preparing to pay the estate tax, so as to avoid disrupting the lives of so many of my staff, many who started as teenagers and built careers with us. I think he sees the need for revenue neutrality in the government, and the estate tax idea that I have built a grass roots initiative around, called ASSET, prevents the job losses but maintains neutrality. I explained the real reason I've been working so hard on reforming the estate tax over the last few years in particular has little to do with me personally, it's all about my people. I always tell elected officials and staff in their offices that it's going to be hard enough getting by St. Peter as a used car salesman, but the most important issue for me is making sure my people are taken care of by assuring the business goes on. I am hopeful that Congress will do more, while in the meantime continuing to prepare.
I believe it is important to reach out to our elected officials to help them understand the role Fitzgerald Auto Mall and all dealerships have in creating jobs and helping our local economy. I appreciate the efforts of all my associates in making Fitzgerald Auto Mall a great place to work and a great place to buy and service vehicles for all our customers.
